Sony has demonstrated the PlayStation 4 console it claims is the 'future of entertainment' - but refused to show off the console itself or say when it will go on sale, or how much it will cost.

The struggling electronics giant hopes the next generation console will help it regain market share against Microsoft, which is yet to reveal plans for its new Xbox console - although both are expected to be on sale in time for Christmas.

The PlayStation 4 features dramatically increased graphics power, and a new controller with a built in touchpad.

Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, in front of a screen showing games being developed for the firm's new PS4 console

Sony flew hundreds of journalists to New York for the event - but failed to actually show off the PS4 console, or reveal when it will go on sale or how much it will cost

PLAYSTATION 4 FEATURES

The PS4's main features include:

New DualShock 4 controller with built in touchpad

Dramatically improved graphics and processing power

Based on same X86 chips used in desktop computer to help game developers

3D camera that can track the controller, and the player

Games can also be played on Sony's Vita handheld console

The new console was demonstrated during a two hour press conference in New York.

However, the firm came under fire for not revealing what the console looks like, with twiter users referring to the press conference as 'the great PS4 scam'.

Presenters played games that were projected on screens in a converted opera house, but the PlayStations themselves were hidden backstage.

However, the firm claimed it wanted to focus on the games at the event.

'I don't know that the box is going to be something that's going to have a dramatic impact on people's feelings about the game,' said Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, the U.S.-based arm of the PlayStation business.

'It will be a color and a size fairly comparable to previous consoles,'

'There's a big story to tell here, and it's going to take between now and the holiday season to get all the details out there,' Tretton said in an interview.

Tretton said the price of the PS4 hasn't been decided yet, but hinted that it wouldn't be as high as the PlayStation 3 was initially.

The PS3 debuted in 2006 with two models for $500 and $600. It now sells for about $300 - the price some experts have claimed the PS4 will be sold at.

PS4's lead system architect, Mark Cern, said 'Nothing will come between the player, the platform, and the joy of the game.'

He showed off a new Dualshock 4 controller with a built in touchpad.

He said the fast new system will have a 8 gigabytes of memory and the new pad will give the gamer a 'tighter sense of control'.

It also has a share button allowing players to easily compete against their friends, and even let friends take over their game.

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Andrew House, head of PlayStation at Sony, said the company was 'strengthening the PlayStation ecosystem through hardware and software... that, when combined, create truly magical experiences'.

He admitted 'the stakes are high for what we’re going to show.'

Analyst Michael Gartenberg of Gartner said he could 'Definitely see the appeal for hardcore gamers, although I suspect much of this could have been delivered on PS3.

'Feeling evolution. Not revolution,' he tweeted.

David Cage of Quantic Dream said that his team had managed to create faces almost indistinguishable from film using added power of the new console.

'You can forget about technology, and focus on the emotion,' he said.

'We are pushing the boundaries into how games look and react,' said Sony's Andrew House.

'Virtually every major third party developer will support Playstation 4.'

Firms that showed off games at the launch include Bungie, the creators of the Halo games, who revealed a new game called Destiny which a is a massive online world, while PC game developer Blizzard showed off the latest version of its popular Diablo game.

Here's looking at you: A face created in real time on the new PS4 console by developers Quantic Dream

The computer generated face was shown moving and its programmers claim it can show far more emotion than any other game character.

The unveiling will excite millions of
computer games fans across the world, and further fuel the on-going
battle between Sony, Xbox 360 manufacturers Microsoft and Nintendo, the
makers of the Wii system.

Since
the first PlayStation console launched in December 1994, Sony has sold
over 310 million home consoles worldwide, and 2.9 billion games.

The new Dualshock controller - the only piece of hardware Sony revealed during the two hour press conference

Mark Cerny, lead system architect for the Sony Playstation 4, shows off the new Dualshock 4 controller, which has a built in touchscreen controller

The new PS4 controller has a touchpad and a light sensor so it can be tracked by cameras on the console, allowing players to simply move it around to play games without having to press buttons

Console rival Microsoft is also
believed to be gearing to launch its successor to the Xbox 360, which is
codenamed Xbox Infinity, though it is understood the Windows giant is
likely to delay announcement of the machine until the E3 show in June.

Observers
expect both systems to be on the shelves in time for Christmas, which
could mean a battle for supremacy between Microsoft and Sony as their
next-generation consoles go head-to-head in the vital holiday season
market.

Mark Cerny, lead system architect for the Sony Playstation 4, reveals the console has a completely redesigned interface

KillZone: Shadowfall, one of the first games to be shown off on the new PS4 system

However, many criticised the Japanese firm for refusing to give away details of the console's appearance or price.

It was instantly panned online as 'worst press conference ever' - although experts say it could still be a hit.

Alex Simmons, UK Editor-in-Chief of IGN.com, said: 'While the promise of a bombastic visual experience that rivals the best Hollywood has to offer, the real potential for PlayStation 4 is how it can bring something new to gaming.

'If it can really deliver graphics so realistic that a human face, whose expressions tell a thousand stories without a word being spoken can bring real emotion to gaming.

'The PlayStation 4 looks immensely powerful, and announced titles like Watch Dogs and Infamous: Second Son look fantastic, if what we saw was real, in-game content.

'Thanks to the console’s shared DNA with current high performance PC components, developers have an exciting new system to create their games.

'Gamers will be very keen to get their hands on the PlayStation 4.'

PLAYSTATION HISTORY: SONY'S RISE TO THE TOP OF THE GAMING WORLD

Computer gaming was about to get serious when Sony unveiled its PlayStation to British customers in 1995.

In
less than a decade, the brand would take consoles from the clutches of
children and teenagers and open them up to adults as grown-up gaming
devices and multimedia entertainment hubs.It
would also catapult the company from the periphery of the games
industry to its very core as the PlayStation became the world's
biggest-selling console to date.

'It's
been an amazing success story,' said Mark Eyles, a console expert at
the University of Portsmouth who developed leading computer games when
he worked in the industry in the 1980s and '90s.

'I think the underlying story is Sony deciding they wanted part of the games market in the 1990s.

There
was already Nintendo and Sega, who had products out there, and Sony
looked at them and thought 'this could earn us some money'.

'When
the PlayStation came out it was interesting to see a big player like
Sony come in an carve out a big market, then continue to invest in it.'

While the first PlayStation games can now be played on a smartphone, many were jaw-droppingly advanced when they were launched.

With
the rise of games on CD, rather than clunky cartridges used by 1990s
market-leaders the Super Nintendo and Sega Megadrive, the PlayStation
offered gameplay that was faster, graphics that were sleeker and a
package that was all together more engaging.

Sony's Playstation brand has become one of the most recognisable in the world

'A lot of its
success was due to good, robust technology but technology that delivered
the quality of games people wanted. It's games that sell consoles, not
the other way round,' said Mark, who worked on early classics including
Ant Attack and Alien Vs Predator and is now an educational adviser for
TIGA, the independent game developers' association.

'It's
not just the technology that's made them successful, Sony has been a
master of identifying trends in gaming and predicting what people want.

'If you look at the things they have done with the PlayStation, they've continued to push the boundaries.'

PlayStation was the brainchild of Ken Kutaragi, a Sony executive who had just come out of his hardware engineering division.

When
it was unveiled to UK gamers in 1995 it cost £299, but the high launch
price quickly tumbled - a pattern that has been repeated time and time
again in Sony's battle to dominate the market with successive
PlayStation reincarnations.

The
PS2, which replaced its aging predecessor and the facelift PlayStation
one in 2000 at a price of £299, brought the device from the confines of
teenagers' bedrooms to the family living room thanks to its ability to
do more than just run games.

It had a built-in DVD player and, like the original console, could also play CDs.

Sony
had latched on to customers' desire for a more than just a gaming
machine, and with its PlayStation3, launched in 2007, it took the
concept a step further by making the console compatible with the
PlayStation Network - an online platform that lets users communicate,
play against each other remotely and access the internet

Due for an update: Microsoft is expected to announce the successor to its Xbox 360 console at June's E3, in time for a Christmas launch date

It has been more than six years since Sony launched the 70million-selling PS3, a longer gap than between it and its PS2 predecessor, adding to the anticipation that it will soon disclose its next gaming concept.

The last time Sony held a PlayStation event, in January 2011, it presented a protoype of its handheld Vita console.

Before that, it convened a gathering in 2005 two months after it first demonstrated the PS3 concept. A meeting in 1999 revealed designs for the PS2.

Rumours surfaced last week that the new machine would be heavily focused on the cloud, which would put the Japanese firm's purchase last year of a leading cloud-based gaming company into perspective.

THE MOBILE PHONE AND TABLET THREAT TO CONSOLES

Pushing ahead of Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo Co Ltd's new Wii U could help Sony revive an electronics business hurt by a
dearth of hit gadgets, a collapse in TV sales and the convergence of
consumer interest around tablets and smartphones built by rivals Apple and Samsung.

Tablets and smartphones already account for around 10 percent of the
$80 billion gaming market.

Those mobile devices, analysts predict, will
within a few years be as powerful as the current slew of game-only
consoles.

Sony has slashed the price of its struggling Vita handheld games console in Japan in a bid to spur sales of the device.

The
maker of Playstation consoles trimmed the price of its 3G Wifi version
by 10,000 yen ($110) to 19,980 yen, with all other models also reduced,
it said in a statement.

Sony
this month trimmed its forecast for handheld sales, including the Vita
and older PSP, to 7 million machines in the year ending March 31
compared with an estimate of 16 million at the start of the business
term.

'SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices.'

Specs
for the next-generation Xbox are rumored to be comparable, with
insiders suggesting that it will also pack 8GB of RAM, HDMI connectors
and USB 3.0.

However, video
gamers have been horrified by rumours that the Microsoft machine will
only work with the Kinect sensor plugged in and that it will only run
games registered to the machine - potentially blocking not only
second-hand games but also games borrowed from friends.

The PlayStation Vita: The portable console, successor to the PSP, was unveiled the last time Sony held a PlayStation event, in January 2011

The launches are important for both companies, as gamers have moved away from consoles since the Xbox 360 and the PS3 débuted.

More and more people have shifted to tablets and smartphones as a gaming platform.

Analysts expect that tablets and other mobile devices will match the power and graphics of today's games consoles within a few years.

Many are already able to run the kinds of 3D games that were once the exclusive preserve of those dedicated machines and high-spec gaming PCs.

Last hurrah: The Garnet Red PS3. Sony are still actively marketing the console, and are releasing it in two different colours tomorrow

Azurite Blue: The 500GB 'super-slim' units may represent one last push of their current gen hardware

Despite the PS4's unveiling, and stiff competition from mobile devices, Sony is still actively marketing the Playstation 3.

The company last week released the console in two different colours.

The new limited edition Garnet Red and Azurite Blue 500GB 'super-slim' units seem to represent one last push of their current generation hardware

VIDEO Sony hints what is to come in next generation of PlayStation 4 games